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Monday, November 29, 2010

Layer Paratha - Layered Indian Flat Bread

Firstly, I would like to remind all my readers (bloggers and non bloggers) about the event going on in my blog and to participate in it :)

Cooking with Whole Foods (CWF) - Quinoa, it ends on December 10th 2010.Feels so nice to write another recipe after a long break. Last post was a tried and tasted one, so wasn't a recipe from me :)

This is one of my dear Manju didi's (my oldest SIL) recipe and everyone in my family just drools over it and want to eat it all the time, if available. My older son is I guess the biggest fan of her bua (atta) and so is this paratha of hers. He cannot do without both of these.

Anyways, this time I tried and mastered it (I guess) :) A very simple recipe actually.

IngredientsWhole Wheat Flour - 2 cups (this will usually make 4 parathas, depending on which size you want)Water - to mix the doughGhee (Clarified Butter) or Butter - to help spread the masala on the parathaMasala SpreadLal Mirch (Red Chili) Powder - 1 tbspChat Masala (This is a masala you get in Indian store) - 1 tbspSalt - 1 tspPreparation

Add water slowly to the wheat flour and knead it to a nice flat bread kind of dough. Keep it covered for couple of minutes before making parathas.

Mix Masala Spread in a cup. I usually mix a big batch so that I don't have to mix it every time. Though it hardly takes 30 seconds, but lazy that I am :)

Now, take a nice big ball from the prepared dough and roll it with the help of rolling pin into a circular shape of desired size (Usually parathas are about anywhere from 5-7 inches in diameter, but you can always make the size that you want). Another note here is that you don't have to roll them out very thin, if you cannot or if you don't want to.

Now, spread about 1/4 or 1/2 tsp of ghee on your rolled out paratha (like in the picture).

Sprinkle mixed masala (as much or as little as you want) on the ghee spread paratha.

Now, slowly with the help of one finger, mix masala with ghee and spread it across the paratha (like in the picture).

Now, cut the paratha in as many pieces as you want. Remember, more pieces, means more layers, but then more pieces also mean more work... lol

Once cutting them in pieces, start stacking pieces of parathas on top of each other (as shows in picture).

Once all the pieces are in one stack, press them together into a flat piece and then dust it with little wheat flour and roll it out in desired shape. Now, here as I cut my pieces in square shape, my end result paratha was in square shapre. But, go with your imagination here.

Now, place the paratha on a hot griddle and cook (roast) both sides with liberal amount of ghee or butter till they are nice golden.

As I serve it to kids, I like to cut them in triangles, but just server as it is.

Note: Masala spread can have more masalas if you want and feel free to change their proportions as you like. Feel free to cut as many pieces to make as many layers. My SIL sometimes goes to as many as 32 or even more layers, but she really has lot of patience...lol. This can be a total customizable paratha based on how you like it. ServingMy family just loves it hot out of tawa with a dollop of butter and a bowl of plain yogurt. But, eat it any way you like your parathas, but honestly, there is no need of any curries or anything with it. My son, loves to separate layers while eating and love those crispy pieces.